Union membership has grown more meaningful during the downturn
24 September 2009
Growing membership and serving members, in good and bad times
1. In one decade, the Labour Movement (LM) saw a two-fold increase in union membership. From some 250,000 members in 1997, NTUC’s membership base has crossed the half a million mark in August 2007. Despite having to tackle two major challenges, the global inflation and global recession head-on during the last two years, NTUC has garnered about 530,000 members to date.
2. When the global inflation hit Singapore during the second quarter of 2008, the LM worked on non-wage measures to help reduce the impact of rising inflation, such as moderating the cost of living through the NTUC Social Enterprises (SEs) via various initiatives such as the U Stretch vouchers, and Utilities and Transport vouchers, totalling to over $76 million worth of social contributions in 2008.
3. When Singapore was hit a second time as a result of the global financial crisis resulting in a global recession, the LM worked swiftly with its tripartite partners to prevent massive retrenchments and rapid rise in unemployment. The LM also pooled together to raise $23.2 million towards the LM U Care Fund to help low-wage members and their families affected by the downturn, making this the largest fund-raising effort by all its key stakeholders.
Serving members in good and bad times
4. Under the U Care Immediate Assistance (UCIA), which is a relief programme for retrenched members, members on shorter work week, and those on temporary layoffs who are facing difficulties, a total of $6.5 million has been allocated to assist up to 65,000 members, which were effectively distributed through the unions. In addition, under the U Care Bursary/Scholarship TOP-UP scheme, $1.2 million would be distributed to the unions to supplement their scholarship and bursary awards scheme and assist up to 12,000 members’ children.
5. Unionists and industrial relations professionals are constantly on the ground to offer workplace advice and help ensure employability of our members throughout their working life. Besides workplace representation, union leaders and Industrial Relations Officers helped many of our members negotiate retrenchment benefits when their companies undergo downsizing or bankruptcy.
6. Ensuring that our workforce is correspondingly re-skilled and up-skilled to cope with economic changes and to support the growing number of new sectors, NTUC’s e2i has effectively helped members through programmes such as Employability Camps (ECs) and the Professional Conversion Programme (PCP).
An all Inclusive Labour Movement
All Collars
7. As the LM looks toward its next goal of 600,000 members, NTUC membership will also enhance its current suite of privileges by working closer with existing partners and developing new partnerships to increase the value of its product offerings to members. Today, NTUC’s membership base reaches out to 27% Rank and File workers and 18.9% of professionals, managers, engineers and technicians (PMETs), of Singapore’s total Resident Labour Workforce . NTUC’s membership benefits and engagement outreach will adopt greater flexibility in its approach and initiatives as the LM continues to serve all our members, across the different collars.
All Ages
8. Through active community engagement, the LM has built various communities to reach out across ages and lifestyles such as nEbO, U Family, Young NTUC and U Live. Members within these communities can partake in their areas of interest through activities that are organised regularly to promote bonding. nEbO for example, an exclusive membership club for youths between 12 and 21 years old, has been steadily reaching out to about 26,000 members. U Live, a newly launched community which engages union members above 55 years old, promotes an enriching lifestyle with emphasis on mental and physical wellness. U Family continues to provide a slew of benefits and activities that cater to the lifestyle, recreational and parenting needs of it’s over 150,000 members. Young NTUC, which engages young union members from ages 18 to 35 years old, also holds a steady membership base of more than 120,000 young working adults.
9. In addition to core benefits offered by NTUC SEs, NTUC membership has also collaborated with key partners to provide a suite of “U Brands” privileges that create added value for our members in areas of movie privileges, petrol discounts, dining deals, travel and wellness benefits. Uplus is one example, where as an enhanced membership card, it offers payment convenience and other exclusive benefits where members get to earn more LinkPoints with each use.
All Nationalities
10. The LM recognises the need for foreign nationals to complement our economy and support our workforce, and NTUC’s membership base is made up of 10% of foreign nationals and 10% of Permanent Residents. One of the new initiatives implemented was training programmes such as English literacy and computer skills, where members could tap into the NETF funding for these courses to help defray some costs.
Growing membership: U Summit – ‘Scaling Greater Heights Together’
11. The U Summit energises LM’s union leaders and partners to work together and scale greater heights towards the next peak in membership expansion. Amid challenging conditions including a changing economic landscape and diversity within the workforce and membership base, union leaders and partners will be equipped with new “tools” to make their next “climb”.
12. This evening’s U Summit event simulates a mountain-climbing experience as guests go through a series of activities that mirrors the extreme tough conditions of mountain climbing to finally reach the first peak, where their efforts are recognised through an awards ceremony. The awards presentation, “U are the Star”, is to recognise unions that have worked towards increasing and retaining their members and the LM’s partners that help provide better value to membership benefits. Refer to Appendix A for a list of award categories and winners and Appendix B for citations of the U Partner Award winners.
13. One of the award categories, the U Breakthrough Award, recognises 3 unions which had achieved breakthrough and innovations in recruitment, retention, service quality and communication with their members. One example is the Building Construction & Timber Industries Employees’ Union (BATU), which thoughtfully had their brochures translated into Tamil, Thai, Bengali, as some of its members’ are of different nationalities. The Education Services Union (ESU) holds regular monthly feedback sessions with its members to understand their needs and interest and also reaches out to its members online via Facebook. Another winner, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore Staff Union (IRASSU) worked out an arrangement such that members can claim 85% of their membership fees through their staff flexible benefit scheme.
14. The tone of the evening builds up as the LM looks forward with determination to scale the next peak where these “mountaineers” embark on their new journey in a flagging-off ceremony. Unions and partners are being equipped with the necessary mountain-climbing ”tools” as symbols to scale the next peak together. The carabiner symbolises aid in recruitment as members stay connected together, a water bottle to sustain themselves which links to retention with useful and relevant member privileges, a rope which strengthens relationships with members through building communities and engagement, and a torchlight that serves as a guide to emerging trends and seeks new ways for membership breakthrough.
Appendix B: Citations for U Partner Award winners
1. NTUC Club
NTUC Club has always been committed to building strong relationships for the Labour Movement beyond the provision of membership privileges through entertainment and facilities.
nEbO, set up in 2007, functions as the missing link between NTUC and youths before they enter the workforce. nEbO’s success in bridging this has been phenomenal. As of 30 June 2009, nEbO has 26,000 members and there have been 702 ex-nEbOians who converted to NTUC members.
Under U Sports, a Labour Movement initiative driven by NTUC Club as part of the club’s efforts to bring unions and communities together through a common love for the game, U Games, the ultimate union sports series, was organised. U Games 08/09 had bulldozed the way for an ambitious nine-month sports calendar that packed in 8 sports events. Over 40 unions had participated in at least one sports event, with several unions supporting multiple events. The second season, U Games 09/10, started in July this year.
The newest project undertaken by NTUC Club is the Union Relationship Management scheme. Under this new initiative, 60 Club staff are involved as Union Relationship Managers or URMs, serving unions as Club ambassadors. These URMs are the unions’ main contacts should they require any assistance on Club matters.
NTUC Club also believes that events are critical to bringing people together because people bond over unique shared experiences. Quebec, Club’s events arm, has been hard at work organising various May Day events and union events at Downtown East and the five clubhouses.
NTUC Club continued to channel its resources and manpower into funding the Family Recreation & Fun carnivals, providing an equal opportunity for low-income union members and their families to experience family bonding through wholesome entertainment. There will be 6 such carnivals in 2009, of which 3 carnivals have been held to benefit over 16,000 members and their families.
Through Club staff’s perseverance, NTUC Club has contributed much in relationship-building, on top of recruiting close to 3,000 new NTUC members and providing $12 million in savings for its members.”
2. Cathay Cineplexes Pte Ltd
Cathay Cineplexes has partnered the NTUC Membership Department since February 2009 in offering value-for-money movie experiences to union members
This collaboration allows members to purchase Cathay Cineplexes movie tickets at discounted rates every single day of the week, enjoy free popcorn along with the ticket purchase, as well as accumulate LinkPoints on their membership cards. In addition, members could purchase Cathay movie vouchers at selected Cheers outlets islandwide.
Since the launch, more than 17,000 discounted Cathay Cineplexes movie tickets and over 10,000 movie vouchers were bought by union members. A total of 527,346 LinkPoints were earned by members through this promotion. Total savings enjoyed by union members exceeded $59,000 over 6 months.
Cathay Cineplexes has also extended full support for NTUC Membership initiatives including waiver of venue cost for membership recruitment drives, contributing to more than $10,000 in savings. Their participation in the one-month U Member campaign saw all of their frontline staff wearing the U Member badges as well as displaying of marketing materials encouraging more to join union membership. Furthermore, Cathay Cineplexes sponsored movie passes & F&B coupons in addition to providing complimentary movie trailers for NTUC's Discover U roadshow. This is testimony of the strong collaboration between both parties in providing greater value to NTUC members and potential new members.
Cathay Cineplexes is honoured to receive the U Partner Award, and to be recognised for its efforts in offering affordable, first-class movie experiences to NTUC members. Cathay believes that the collaboration has helped to reach out to a vast market and enrich the lives of many Singaporeans, who love watching movies during their pastime and view Cathay Cineplexes as their choice movie destination.
